Records Show Crime and Resolutions Up in City
New Zealand Police National News Release
10:46am 1 April 2008
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release.html?id=3820

More crime is being recorded and resolved in the Auckland City District. In 2007 there were 57,187 recorded offences, up from the previous year's tally of 54,294.

Put into a population context, for every 10,000 residents in the district, there are 1,380 offences. Just short of 40 per cent of those were resolved last year.

The crime category with the most noticeable increase is that of recorded property damage where there's a 25 per cent increase on the previous year's total of 2,724 offences.

Acting Auckland City District Commander Superintendent Brett England says, while at first glance the numbers might concern come people, he's confident the increase is - in part - due to the impact of a range of positive policing activities and initiatives in the district.

"Over the past 18 months we've been able to extend our service to enable members of the public to more easily report incidences of crime to Police," Mr England said.

"We've got more call takers at the Northern Communications Centre who are trained to deal with certain categories of crime over the 'phone, thereby alleviating the caller's need to physically visit a Police station.

"Offences such as burglary, theft from cars and property damage are being dealt with much more efficiently by our staff and consequently members of the public have become more inclined to contact Police when confronted by crime."

Mr England said he's encouraged by the increased level of reportage of family violence which he views as a direct result of the efficacy of the various family violence awareness campaigns that have been run in the district and throughout the country over the past years.

"Added to that, we've enhanced the number of staff who deal specifically with family violence victims and offenders in the district and I believe this has encouraged an increased level of reportage to Police by victims and those aware of violence occurring.

"It's long been known that alcohol is a contributor to violent offending and over the 12 to 18 months the district has more actively enforced City Council bylaws around the consumption of alcohol in public places.

"As a consequence, there's been an increase in breaches of liquor ban bylaws which is reflected by an extra 800 offences in the total crime statistics for the district. As a flow-on from that, there's been a clear reduction in the number of public place violent offences."

Of concern is the jump in the number of thefts from vehicles - in many cases a preventable crime.

Mr England said this was a frustration for Police and the wider community because incidences of thefts from cars can be drastically reduced when people took care to ensure items of interest or value are not visible to opportunist thieves.

Recorded burglaries are down by 6.8 per cent on the previous year to 8,188 offences and, of those, 11 per cent were resolved last year. That's up from the previous resolution rate of 8.5 per cent.

ENDS

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